Blog

  • Sorry, Census. Poverty Really Did Increase in 2009.

    Between 2008 and 2009, unemployment increased from 5.8 percent to 9.3 percent, the largest one-year increase on record (which goes back to 1948). Over the same period, the number of Americans without health insurance coverage rose by more than four million — from 46.3 million in 2008 to 50.7 million in 2009 — and low-income…

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  • Bruce Reed Appointed Biden Chief of Staff Today

    In light of his prominent role in deficit reduction and the ‘end of welfare’ in the 1990s, Reed’s appointment sends a clear — and troubling — signal about the administration’s domestic policy priorities in the years ahead. Alice O’Connor is author of Poverty Knowledge: Social Science, Social Policy and the Poor in Twentieth Century U.S.…

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  • A Statement from Former Prisoner Omar Deghayes on the 9th Anniversary of the Opening of Guantánamo

    Two years ago, President Barack Obama pledged to bring an end to the anomaly that is Guantánamo within a year, and to thereby restore America’s moral standing in the world. Yet today, on January 11, 2011, we are marking the beginning of the tenth year since the first prisoners were transferred to Camp X Ray…

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  • The Referendum in Sudan

    KHARTOUM, Sudan — Just days before the historic referendum on southern independence Khartoum is experiencing temperate weather and what may turn out to be a deceptive calm. In fact, everybody is either worried or excited, depending on their circumstances. Southerners are resolute that they will not accept second class citizenship in their own country, otherwise,…

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  • The End of New Deal Liberalism

    By William Greider We have reached a pivotal moment in government and politics, and it feels like the last, groaning spasms of New Deal liberalism. When the party of activist government, faced with an epic crisis, will not use government’s extensive powers to reverse the economic disorders and heal deepening social deterioration, then it must…

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  • Chomsky’s initial reaction to WikiLeaks’ latest

    I took a quick look at [“U.S. embassy cables: Hillary Clinton woos prickly Egyptians“].  It’s interesting that Israel does not appear, only Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon.  I found only one entry of any interest, in US Embassy to Clinton: “Soliman brokered a half-year-long truce last year, which Hamas broke in December, leading to the Israeli…

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  • The Katharine Gun Case

    Katharine Gun, a British former government employee, faced two years imprisonment in England for the “crime” of telling the truth. She was charged with leaking an embarrassing U.S. intelligence memo indicating that the U.S. had mounted a spying “surge” against U.N. delegations in early 2003 in an effort to win approval of the Iraq war…

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  • Bush and Blair: A Partnership of Deception

    British Prime Minister Tony Blair is back in Britain now facing an ever-widening scandal involving the distortion of evidence on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, but his recent trip to meet with President Bush underscores the partnership the two leaders have shared as both face growing evidence that they knowingly used faulty intelligence to…

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  • Bush in Africa: “A Cruel Hoax”?

    President Bush’s recent tour of Africa to tout his $15 billion pledge to fight the continent’s AIDS epidemic and promote trade was met with skepticism by critics who charged that his administration is attempting to mask regressive policies with staged public relations events. Bush’s trip to Africa appears to represent, more than anything else, an…

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  • Responses to Bush’s 2003 State of the Union Address

    Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, members of Congress, distinguished citizens and fellow citizens, every year, by law and by custom, we meet here to consider the state of the union. This year, we gather in this chamber deeply aware of decisive days that lie ahead. You and I serve our country in a time of…

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  • 1,000 Palestinians Killed Since “Ceasefire” — Is Gaza More Vulnerable with Iran Deal?

    “A very dangerous new nightmare we are living in Gaza City, and no one in the world is paying attention to it.  Days ago, the Israeli army installed huge military cranes, each about 30 meters tall, on the eastern areas it controls. These cranes are equipped with machine guns and cameras, and they fire randomly…

  • Proposed USPS Rule Would Disrupt Mail Voting

    Last week, the New York Times reported that the U.S. Postal Service “proposed a new rule that would allow it to refuse to deliver mail ballots in states that don’t turn over voter rolls to the federal government.” The prospective rule asks states to create lists of mail voters to screen ballots for eligibility, and…

  • Understanding U.S.-Iran Deal

    According to this text, the first point includes a declaration that the U.S. and Iran “will refrain from the threat or use of force against each other.” But Trump just said: “It’s a memorandum of understanding. And if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs on their head.”

  • British Court “Redefines ‘Terrorism’ to Mean Opposition to Genocide”

    “The Court of Appeal decision is reactionary, says nothing about the ‘lawful business’ of Elbit in providing the means to commit genocide and they have redefined ‘terrorism’ to mean opposition to genocide.” 

  • The True U.S. Military Budget

    A new report by the Project on Government Oversight, “The True Total U.S. Military Budget,” explains that the commonly cited U.S. military budget (around $1 trillion) is a substantial understatement, as it excludes military-related costs spread across other federal agencies and accounts. The analysis contends that both the government and journalists have “long failed to…

  • U.S. Bombs Water Facilities in Iran; Is that “Effective Operations” as with Iraq?

    “Thousands of Iranians in the southern port town of Sirik have lost access to drinking water after US strikes hit two reservoirs in the area, Iranian state media said on Wednesday. The United States carried out strikes on the southern cities of Jask and Sirik and on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, after…

  • Albanians Continue Protesting Against Kushner Deal 

    “’Barbed wire cannot silence people,’ said one conservationist. ‘A protected landscape of global importance is under attack, and people are demanding an end to the devastation.’ … ‘Don’t defend the oligarchs!’ one man was seen shouting into a megaphone. ‘Those are the citizens’ properties!'”

  • Senate Wants to Force U.S. to Share Sensitive Intel with Israel

    “In intelligence, Israel is more of an adversary than an ally. Being an adversary in intelligence means indulging in the hostile act of espionage. Israel has a long record of conducting that type of hostile act against the United States.”

  • ICC and Israel: Finding New Ways to Avoid Taking Action?

    “The decision by the Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties, a political body dominated by Western states and their allies, to suspend ICC Prosecutor Khan, despite the exculpatory findings of both the judicial panel that reviewed the case and the OIOS [Office of Internal Oversight Services] oversight body, can only be seen as just…

  • Coalition Calls for Schumer to Step Aside as Minority Leader

    The electronic billboard, circulating around the Capitol throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, reads: “Chuck Schumer has failed to provide real leadership against a war-crazed Trump administration” and “Chuck Schumer: Step Aside as Minority Leader.” Groups participating in the campaign include RootsAction, World BEYOND War, Just Foreign Policy, Veterans For Peace, and Peace Action.

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